You Never Get It Right
by xwhenyourenotdown
Summary: "They sit like that for a while, his mind racing, trying to figure out how to deal with a drunk, teary Jade and make it out alive." Jade/Andre; The Worst Couple through the end of the series.
1. The Worst Couple

Andre Harris isn't proud of it, but his heart sort-of flutters when he comes home to find Jade West sitting on his front porch.

And over the cacophony of thoughts that this isn't okay, he left the world's most awkward card game to avoid their drama, why is she here, a tiny part of him connects the dots that she is single now.

He shoves that down and gets out of the car, slowly and quietly approaching the porch so his grandma won't hear and come out to see what's going on. She's scared of Jade - although he suspects not in the same way that he is, the way everyone is.

"Hey..." he says tentatively as he approaches the stoop.

She just looks up at him, her eyes glassy and sort-of puffy, but she's blinking furious, probably trying stop them from looking that way.

"So..." when it becomes clear she has no intention of talking, he continues, "What are you doing here?"

"Don't take it personally, Harris," she says, taking a swig from the Diet Coke bottle by her side, "I don't have anywhere else."

"So you just come here?" she ignores him and takes another sip. He can feel the rage of the past months, of constantly listening to them bickering, building up, "I'm Beck's friend, you don't even like me. Go home."

"I don't _dis_like you," she sort-of snarls, but he can tell her heart's not in it. She stands up, making her way towards her car, wavers on her feet and almost pitches right into him. He catches her, smells something strong and bitter, and begins to suspect that the Diet Coke bottle isn't full of Diet Coke.

"Have you been drinking?"

"Whatever, Harris, we're not friends," she wriggles, trying to get out of his arms, but he holds tight, not really sure if he should be cursing the universe or thanking it right now. Her hair is soft and in his face and he's never been this close and oh god, this is not the time.

"You can't drive."

She pulls back and looks at him, "But I can't stay here. Sooo," she reaches for her keys again. He grabs her arm.

"You can stay here. But you have to be quiet."

She nods and stumbles back on to the porch, waiting for him. He passes her to unlock the door and she touches his arm, he turns to look at her, "Thanks," she mutters, looking at the ground. He realizes her eyes are totally full of tears and the only thought he's got is that this is so not the time to deal with whatever he's feeling.

So, he opens the door and leads her inside. She really is making an effort to tip-toe, but combined with the alcohol and boots, it's not really doing anything. They somehow make it halfway up the stairs before -

"ANDRE. IS THAT YOU?"

Jade jumps a little and grabs his arm. Fiercely ignoring her and how his heart seems to have rocketed into his throat, he yells back, "YES GRANDMA."

"ANDRE! I HEAR TWO PAIRS OF FEET!"

"NO, GRANDMA, JUST ME..." he throws out the first thing he can think of, "YOU'RE DREAMING."

Even a year ago, she probably wouldn't have let it go, but her mind can't hold onto anything for longer than a minute these days and she doesn't reply. Andre breathes a sign of relief and moves to keep going, realizing that Jade is still clinging to his arm and doesn't seem to have any intention of letting go.

He swallows hard, "Uh, we really need to be quiet."

She blinks, shaking herself, and lets go. They make it up to his room without further interruption and he flicks on the lights and motions for her to sit on the bed. She roughly kicks off her boots at the door, takes off her jacket, and sits, legs curled up, near his pillow.

He has no idea what to do and a million thoughts are rushing through his head, even not accounting for the completely inappropriate ones he keeps pushing down.

"So..." he says, walking over and sitting on the foot of the bed, facing her, "Why were you drunk on my porch?"

She rolls her eyes, "I told you, don't take it personally. Trust me, I would have gone anywhere else. And I'm not drunk."

"You could barely make it up the stairs."

"Okay, maybe a little," she leans back and looks up at the ceiling, "Leave. Me. Alone."

"Oh, I can't do that. You were drunk on my porch. Why my porch? Don't you have your own porch to drink on?"

She rolls her eyes, and counts off on her fingers, "Couldn't go back to Vega's because, duh. I don't want to deal with murdering Robbie, and you expect me to try to talk to Cat?"

"And you couldn't go home because...?"

She scoffs, "Oh, yeah, that would go well," she pitches her voice up an octave, "Oh, Jade, you're home. Jade, why are you crying? Jade, I know I destroyed your family but you should talk to me!"

"So, you're here."

She nods, "I'm here. Aren't you lucky? "

"Won't your parents notice if you don't come home?

"I don't spend much time there," her voice cracks on the last word and he quickly pieces together where she was spending time instead.

He doesn't know how to respond (or if he's even supposed to? Is he a bad friend for not being with Beck right now?), and they sit in silence.

She swallows hard, "I'm not going to like bite you or whatever, you can sit closer."

He scootches up the bed and sits next to her, "So, do you want to ... talk?"

She rolls her eyes, as if it's obvious, "No."

He's a weird combination of pissed and relieved because again he has no clue why she's here, making his stomach twist and feel sort-of sick. But he also has no clue how to talk to her - they've always been friends (if you can call it that, he's not sure Jade would) by convenience - she was dating Beck, he was friends with Beck. He can't recall a single one-on-one conversation they've had outside of that time she helped him with that song (and damn, he does not need reminding of that right now).

"This is incredibly lame and if tell anyone I'll murder you. Brutally. But I don't want to be alone, so... yeah," she trails off, "I promise, if you tell anyone I was here, Harris, you will be murdered. Brutally."

He's not really sure what to do with that, "...Okay."

"Good," she moves closer and leans her head on his shoulder. And oh god. All he can think is that Jade has her head on his shoulder. And this is bad. Really bad. But damn, she smells nice.

They sit like that for a while, his mind racing, trying to figure out how to deal with a drunk, teary Jade and make it out alive. He eventually, thankfully, realizes his problem has been solved and she's asleep. He slowly moves out from under her, leaning her back towards the pillows. She's wearing this black, sleeveless thing and he doesn't look or purpose anything, but it slips down a bit as he shifts her and it again crosses his mind that she's not Beck's anymore, but then she still sort-of is, and he can't deal with it. And he can't even pound it out on the piano because he doesn't want to wake her up, but, but, but.

He gets to the closet, finds a blanket to cover her with, and a few more so he can sleep on the rug. His mind is racing way way too fast, just like last spring, and he has no idea how he manages to fall asleep, but suddenly the sun is streaming in and Jade's gone. The only evidence that this wasn't just some weird fever dream is that he's sleeping on the floor and his pillowcase smells like her.

He knows it's stupid and probably crossing all kinds of lines not to wash it just because it smells like her. But he has no clue where those lines even are anymore.

* * *

_I'm hoping this will be a multi-chaptered, missing scenes type Jandre fic for The Worst Couple through the end of the series. I'm in grad school right now (...I know) and that's all kinds of hectic, but hopefully I can use this as a stress reliever now and again!_


	2. The Worst Couple (cont)

He's rummaging through his locker the next day when Beck comes over, "Hey."

"Oh, hey man, sorry I wasn't around last night. I just, well uh, I... was, you know, just..." He mentally kicks himself for being the worst liar ever.

"It's fine."

"So, uh, how are you doing?"

Beck raises his eyebrows, "Uh, okay."

"So, are you broken up for good this time, or..."

"Uh, well, she changed her Slap status to single."

"Oh, she's never done that before..." He knows how awkward this is, that this isn't the conversation to have when one's best friend has just broken up with his girlfriend, but at this point he's just sort-of rambling, "Has she?"

"No..."

Thankfully, Robbie and Rex come over before he can ask more stupid questions.

"Hey, what's cracking," although he forgot Robbie was likely to say something stupider.

"Hah, I'll take it from here Rob," Rex joins in, "Beck, congrats on ditching the freaky one."

"Uh... thank you?"

"Now, I can set you up with some of my girls... they'll show you a good time."

"Rex!" Robbie takes the puppet off his hand and holds it to his chest, "He didn't mean it."

"Yeah," Beck gives all three of them a look, "I'm gonna go to class. Thanks for your, uh, support..."

"That went well," Robbie says as soon as Beck rounds the corner.

Andre just sort-of rolls his eyes and goes back to rummaging through his locker, "Uh... sure."

"I wonder if Jade needs someone to comfort her..."

"...Yeah, don't do that."

He turns back to his locker and checks his phone. Yup, both of their profiles say single, which has never happened - the last time they broke up for like a day, she just didn't put anything. He keeps digging through his locker, intensely focusing on finding his history book (which is probably at home), and nothing else. Tori comes over to show off her new phone and Cat to confirm that Beck and Jade are done for good.

"Did you see Jade and Beck's profiles on the Slap?"

"I did."

"Yep."

"What do they say?" Tori asks.

"Not in a relationship."

None of them really know where to go with that, but the conversation is cut short by Trina running in with the new XT. When Tori stalks off, the conversation instantly turns back to Beck and Jade.

"Have you guys seen Beck?" Trina fluffs her hair, "He needs to know that he's going out with me this Saturday."

"He went that way," Robbie points down the hall.

"Yay!" Trina scurries down the hall as fast as she can in her heels, yelling for Beck.

"What are you doing that for?"

"Just helping out a friend," Robbie replies, "Why are you so grumpy anyway."

"I'm not," he says in what he quickly realizes is a grumpy tone, "...I'm going get to class."

"See you in Sikowitz's class!" he's not sure why Robbie's upbeatness is bothering him so much. Yeah, it's annoying, but he shouldn't be fighting off the urge to strangle him. That's more Jade's department.

He winces at the thought because he does not need to be thinking about her, or how she was at his house, or how he's pretty sure he left his history book on his bed because he got distracted when he smelled her perfume on his covers.

Jade's in his history class, but she doesn't show up that day. Which is annoying, because if she's going to make him forget his book, she could at least show up and share hers. Not that Jade would agree to share anything, but it would have been nice to have the option instead of sharing with Sinjin, who smells like feet.

* * *

Jade comes into Sikowitz's class and takes the chair next to his, the one that was usually Beck's, but he guesses it's not like they can sit next to each other anymore.

"Hey."

"Hey," he turns to her, "You could have like, said goodbye."

"Not here," she hisses, pointing to Cat, who is absorbed in her phone.

He rolls his eyes because it's not like Cat is going to have any clue what they're talking about, "Why weren't you in history?"

"Didn't feel like it."

"But you feel like being here? You do remember Beck is in this class."

She rolls her eyes and shrugs as Beck walks in. They just sort-of glare at each other and Beck collapses in the seat on the other side of Andre. Great, this is exactly where he wanted to be.

As the bell rings, Sikowitz pokes his head out from behind one of the curtains, "Hello!" he scans the room and pauses, "Jade, Beck, why have you moved your seats?"

"Well, uh..." Beck begins.

Jade cuts him off, "We broke up."

"Oh, really?" Sikowitz sits down on the edge of the stage, crossing his legs, "Why?"

"I'm not telling you that!"

"Jade..."

"Shut up," she turns to Beck, "You want to tell his goon all about how unhappy you are?"

"I will remind you that this goon determines your final grade, Jade. But I can see where lines are being crossed," Sikowitz stands up, "And I probably shouldn't ask you two to do the scene I planned..." he scans the room, "Jade, come up here. Andre, you'll take Beck's place."

"What now?"

"Don't get your panties in a pretzel, it's just acting," Sikowitz throws a book at him, _Much Ado About Nothing_, "Act 5, Scene 4. Jade, read for Beatrice. Andre, read for Benedict."

He skims the pages, "...There's a kiss in this."

Sikowitz raises an eyebrow, "So?"

He turns to look at Beck, who just shrugs.

"What, you don't want to kiss me, Harris?" Jade's leaning against the wall, a smirk on her face.

"Uh, no," he says hurriedly, "I mean, not that there's anything wrong with you, just, uh, you and Beck and, uh, you were dating, and that makes you, like ... bros before hoes, you know?"

"Oh, so, now I'm a ho?"

"Uh... no," he looks frantically at Beck.

"Uh... I'm ... okay with it?" Beck says.

"I'll do it!" Robbie chimes in.

"No, Andre's doing it," Jade looks right at him, her smirk growing, "Aren't you."

"Andre, just get up there and do the scene. You kiss your classmates all the time in this class and you will do so when you're a professional actor."

"Uh, I don't want to be an actor," he's stalling, "I want to be, uh, a musician. And all of this kissing does seem, uh, kind-of, you know... inappropriate..."

"Well, there's even more meaningless kissing in the music world, so you might as well get used to it."

He slowly makes his way onstage and they work their way through the scene. Jade slowly moves closer and closer to him until, when she says her last lines, she's about six inches away.

"I yield upon great persuasion; and party to save your life, for I was told you were in a consumption!"

"Uhh..." he leans back and turns to Sikowitz, "Do I really have to do this?"

"Yes."

"Uh, okay, fine," he looks down at the book, "Peace. I will stop your mouth."

"Do it again, you need to show passion! Remember you are in love with her!"

"Uhhh," he swallows. Jade's blinking up at him through her eyelashes, he can tell by the lack of smirk that she's completely in character. He tells himself that this means nothing, it's just acting, and takes a deep breath.

"Peace! I will stop your mouth!" he takes her chin in his hand and brushes his thumb against her cheek, bringing her face close to his. She's still totally in character, but he can see something in her eyes almost light up and he's not sure if she's amused or excited about this, but if he thinks about that, he's going to stop and he's never been this close and he has sort-of wanted this for months even if it's absolutely not okay. His thoughts rocket to a halt as she closes the remaining millimeters between them and places her mouth on his and oh god, he is kissing Jade West. She brings her hand up and runs it through his dreads and sucks on his lower lip and he can feel himself sigh into her and her lips perk up, just a little as they keep kissing. She slowly lowers her hand down his back and carefully pulls away, leaning her forehead against his. She's still in his arms and her face is so close and she's looking into his eyes and -

"Scene, there we go!" Sikowitz is clearly excited, "That was some great acting!"

"Yeah, Harris," Jade pulls away, smirking again, "Great _acting_."

* * *

He approaches Beck at his locker after class, "I'm sorry man, just you know, the assignment."

Beck shrugs, "Don't worry, I know Sikowitz is nuts. It's not like it meant anything."

"Uh, yeah, it meant nothing. Nothing at all. I did not enjoy that."

"Hey, you want to go to that new sushi place for lunch? I don't want to deal with sitting with Jade."

"Yeah, sure," he does not want to sit with Beck alone for an hour, but he just made out with his ex of like sixteen hours in front of him and really liked it, so he can't say no, "Let's invite Robbie too."

Beck shrugs, "Yeah, sounds good, we haven't done a guys' thing in a while."

* * *

He's at the bar trying to order a refill of green tea when a girl cuts in front of him.

"Hey! You can't do that!"

"Yes, I can," she turns around, and looks him up and down, "You're cute."

"Uh.. thank you."

"You should date me."

"I don't even know your name."

"Hope, Hope Quincy."

"Quincy? Like the record producer?"

"Yup. So, are we dating or not?"

If he's a bad person already, he might as well get a shot at a record deal out of it.

* * *

_I know I took some major liberties with the staging of _Much Ado About Nothing, _but I do hope it worked anyway._

_Thank you all for the lovely reviews! I've mapped out where I want this story to go and hopefully I can keep up some sort of pace. To those who commented you were in college too - I'm done with college. Some college saw fit to give me a degree. I'm doing my masters now, and I'm still obsessed with Victorious, so, don't worry, that doesn't go away or anything?_


	3. Andre's Horrible Girl

Two weeks pass. Jade and Beck don't get back together, Jade doesn't show up on his door step, and he's grateful for both honestly. Hope demands more and more of his time until he's spending practically every second with her and has seriously considered jumping out the window of her penthouse. The only reason he doesn't is a conversation they had the day after she asked him out:

"So, you're going to write me a song for my birthday."

"Sure thing babe, when is it?"

"Saturday after next, I'm having a big party at Nozu and everyone is going to be there. And you had better write me an amazing song."

He figures it's best for everyone involved not to mention that every song he could write about Hope was crap and he ended up writing another one about Jade.

* * *

He's just getting home after Hope's party when a black car pulls up and honks.

"Harris! Come with me, I want coffee," Jade yells out the window.

"You can't get it by yourself," he yells back.

She shrugs indifferently, "Sorry, just thought you might want to come."

He knows it's a bad idea, but wanders over anyway, "24 hour place on Sunset?"

"You know your coffee, Harris?"

"No, but I've heard you screaming about how much you hate that place."

She nods, "I do. But the only other coffee place open at midnight is three hours away and I'll take it you're not down with that. You coming or not?"

He gets in the car, she smirks and pulls out of the driveway. They drive the ten minutes without taking, some sad, belty song playing on the radio.

Once inside, she orders a black coffee and he orders a latte, feeling lame, but it's not like he drinks a lot of coffee, so, whatever.

"Kind of a girly drink, no?" She says as she slowly stirs two packets of sugar into her cup.

"I don't like coffee that much."

She just raises her eyebrows and takes a sip, "Ugh, this is awful."

"Yeah, so, why did you want to get coffee with me at midnight?"

She shrugs, "I don't know, I just didn't want to go home and I didn't want to sneak past your grandmother."

"Why didn't you want to go home?"

"I saw Beck tonight," he's not sure if she's changing the subject or not.

He's not really sure how to respond to that. Oh really? Well, I broke up with my girlfriend, who got hit in the head with a sushi sign, and oh, yeah, I sang another song about you. Yes, another one. There have been previous songs about you.

Something clicks, "Wait, didn't you have a date tonight? It said so on the Slap... Are you and Beck going out again?"

"Oh, no, that wasn't true," she says bluntly, "I was trying to make him jealous. It didn't work."

"So what we're you doing?"

"Dog-sitting with Cat," she rolls her eyes, "We, well, I, broke a ton of shit and she invited Robbie to fix it because that makes sense and he brought Beck."

"That sounds awkward..." he trails off, why is he her relationship therapist now? Isn't this a position Tori should be dying to wiggle into? Why him?

"It was, it was. So, I decided I could go home and stare at my walls and feel things, or I could get coffee."

"I see..." he's feeling really awkward now.

"Calm down, Harris, I'm not going to bite you. Or kiss you for some creepy goon's enjoyment. You'd taste like latte anyway."

"Yeah, that shit was weird."

She smirks, "Tell me about it. You auditioning for the spring play?"

"No, I was thinking about doing the music instead..."

They somehow lapse into easy conversation about acting, the upcoming plays, and the handful they've been in together. He finds himself relaxing and enjoying himself. Jade turns out to be weirdly easy to talk to if she's in the mood to talk to you and late-night coffee becomes a weird weekly tradition. Over the nights that follow, they talk about everything - classes, dreams, hobbies - except his ever-growing crush on her and Beck. She complains about the shit coffee every time but never suggests going anywhere else. He suspects its because Beck hates this place just as much as she does and they'll never run into him here.

* * *

She comes in one night half an hour late and dripping wet, groaning as she collapses into the chair. "I'm going to kill Cat."

"That why you're late?"

"Ughhh, Tori made me drive them to this dead actress's house in San Diego so we could light a candle. Except Cat is an idiot and she was totally alive and sprayed us with a squirt gun. And Cat's brother's car doesn't have a roof, so..." she motions to the storm still raging outside.

"No 'Hey Andre, I'll be late' text?"

She pulls out her phone, "It doesn't work. Water."

"Oh, yeah, that would be a problem."

"Yeah, she leans back, sipping at the now-luke warm coffee he bought her, "So, what'd you do tonight?"

"Erm," he does not want to bring up Beck, "Played a prank on Trina."

"Why?"

"You didn't hear the rumors?"

"I haven't really been hanging out on the quad lately."

"You know, you don't have to eat in the janitor's closet. You can sit with us and it wouldn't be like, super awkward."

"Yeah, whatever," she rolls her eyes, "What rumors? Did Trina get the clap?"

"No, but that would be the only applause she would ever get," he is desperately trying to change the subject.

"Hilarious. No, but really."

"She was spreading rumors that Beck asked her out."

She slams her coffee down, "He did not."

"Calm down, he didn't. Trina was just being an idiot. So, we staged this whole thing, there were puppets."

She seems sort-of lost and he doesn't know what to do so they just sit there in silence for a few minutes. He finishes his latte, she sips at the coffee and stares off into space.

After a while he can't take it anymore, "You okay?"

She blinks, "Oh, yeah, whatever."

"You wanna cut it short tonight? It can't be comfortable in the wet clothes."

"No, no, I can't go home. My dad's having a party," she sips at the coffee again, "I'm a horrible guest, so, no going home until after two for me tonight."

"They expect you to just stay out until two?"

"Yeah, well, it was never an issue before."

They're veering back into Beck territory, so he says the first thing that pops into his head, "You wanna come back to my place and take a shower?"

"You serious?"

"Yeah, why not?"

She shrugs, "Yeah, that would work."

She follows him back to his house and, not under the influence of alcohol this time, expertly tip-toes up the stairs, and his grandma stays asleep. He motions to his room and walks down the hall to grab fresh towels out of the linen basket.

"Okay, so, here you go," he hands her the towels, "Soap and shampoo are in there, let me know if you need anything."

She nods and goes in the bathroom, emerging a few seconds later wearing only a towel and holding her pants, "Do you have a dryer you could throw these in?"

"Uh, yeah, yeah, I can do that," he frantically looks anywhere but at her and oh god, Jade West is almost naked in his bedroom, "You need anything else? What about your, uh, shirt?"

"Can't go in the dryer... can I borrow that," she motions to a t-shirt on his bureau.

"Uh, yeah, sure, you take that."

"Thanks," she smiles at him, or smirks, he's not sure, and goes into his bathroom. He sneaks downstairs, throws her clothes in the dryer, and spends the next twenty minutes freaking out because he just saw Jade West in a towel, and messing around on the piano, listening to the water run and her occasionally singing a line of a song.

When he hears the water stop, he runs downstairs and gets her pants, handing them to her when she sticks her hand out of the door. A few minutes later, she comes out, wearing her pants and his t-shirt, her hair pulled off her face in a drippy ponytail. He realizes he's never seen her without makeup before - she looks different, younger, but still really really pretty.

"Thanks," she says, he's just sort-of staring at her really, "I'll bring the shirt back."

"Uhh, that's cool," she grabs her bag and turns to leave, "Same time next week?"

"Yeah, I'll be there. Good night Andre."

Between seeing her in a towel, her wearing his shirt, and the rare use of his first name, he has some dreams that night that definitely push him into the bad best friend territory.


	4. Tori and Jade's Play Date

AndreH: Can you do me a favor?

ScissorLuv: I don't do favors

AndreH: Please?

AndreH: I'll buy you coffee.

ScissorLuv: You already buy me coffee.

AndreH: Coffee for a year

AndreH: Coffee for eternity

ScissorLuv: What is this massive favor?

AndreH: My grandma's urine spilled in Beck's car

ScissorLuv: No.

ScissorLuv: No, no, no, no, no

ScissorLuv: Harris

ScissorLuv: There is not enough coffee in the world.

AndreH: No, no

AndreH: I just want to know what the name of Beck's car wash place

AndreH: You know, how he only trusts that one place with his car

AndreH: It's really hippie, I think?

ScissorLuv: Yeah, I know he's an idiot about that

AndreH: I tried to find their website

ScissorLuv: They don't have one

ScissorLuv: Their employees tell me that the internet is a finite concept and our over reliance on it threatens our existence as infinite beings.

AndreH: Do you know where it is?

ScissorLuv: I can probably figure it out.

AndreH: Please?

ScissorLuv: Fine

ScissorLuv: Meet me at Melrose and Ocean in 20 minutes.

* * *

She's parked under a tree, lying on the hood of her car when he pulls up. He parks behind her, walking over, and leaning on the hood of her car.

"Hey."

"Hey... don't you have your own car?"

"My grandma's scared of it."

"Why?"

"I don't know. But she needed to go to the doctor, so I switched cars with Beck."

She glances over at his car, "But she's not with you?"

"She's scared of his car too. Apparently it's a cars-in-general fear. So, the doctor said I could just bring a cup of the, uh, liquid."

"I don't want to hear how you got it."

"I don't want to relive it. But I did, put it in the cup holder, and then when I took a sharp left..."

"Oh my god, Harris, you didn't cover that?"

"I don't know, I wasn't thinking."

"Clearly," she hops off the hood and gets in the driver's seat of her car, "Follow me, I'll try to find it."

"Thanks."

"Yeah, yeah."

They drive for twenty-five minutes and three u-turns before she pulls over again, motioning for him to pull up beside her.

"It's this street, like half a mile farther."

"You're not coming?"

"They'll recognize me."

"So?"

"I've been really clear about what I think of their hippie shit. They probably smoked a ton of celebratory weed when they heard Beck and I broke up."

He shrugs, not sure how to respond to the first time she's ever said Beck's name, let alone acknowledged they broke up, "Thanks, coffee tonight?"

"Yeah, want to do Starbucks on Maple at 8?"

"...You hate Starbucks."

"Not as much as I hate that place on Sunset. Come on, you can get some frippy, foamy thing."

"Sounds good."

* * *

She nods and rolls her window back up. He's not sure, but he thinks she's genuinely smiling as she drives off.

He finds her at lunch the next day in her usual janitor's closet. "You really don't have to eat in here."

"I'll be spending plenty of time at with our dear friends at play rehearsal."

He sits on a box and pulls out his lunch.

"Whoa, whoa, who said you could join me?"

"I had Robbie and Cat sing Beck a song about the, uh, incident, yesterday... so I'd rather lay low for a while. If you don't mind."

She shrugs, "Whatever."

They chew in silence for a few minutes, "You read the play?" she finally asks.

"Skimmed through it. What do you think?"

She rolls her eyes, "I'd like it a million times better if I wasn't playing Vega's wife."

"Yeah, I figured that. Otherwise?"

"It's fine, typical Sikowitz fare. I wish we were allowed to write our own stuff occasionally."

"Spring showcase - you write the words, I'll write the music?"

"I hate musicals."

"And you know how ridiculous that is..."

They launch into a debate about the merits of musical theatre and, far too soon, the bell rings.

"You're completely wrong, Harris," she says, shrugging her bag on to her shoulder.

"Yeah, well, so are you..." he picks up his backpack, "Maybe eat outside tomorrow?"

"Not tomorrow."

She leaves before he can get out another word. He takes a second to make sure his book for math is in his bag and then heads out to find Beck standing at the soda machine.

"Hey," Beck calls, ruining his plan to just sneak away.

"Oh, hey."

"Why were you eating lunch in a closet?"

"I wasn't sure how mad you were about, the, uh, well, situation with your car. So, I ate with ... Jade."

"I'm not thrilled."

"I got it cleaned, went to that car wash you're obsessed with and everything."

"Oh... it would have been nice if they had mentioned that in the song," they walk together down the hall, "Jade's been eating in a closet?"

"Where'd you think she was eating."

"I didn't think about it... it's been like a month." They stop at Beck's locker and he starts turning the lock,

"You're not mad? You know, that I ate with her?"

Beck pauses and looks up, "No? Why would I be?"

"I dunno..."

Beck slams his locker, "I don't mind if you, like, hang out with her. I know she's your friend too ... sort-of."

"Yeah," Andre replies, feeling guilty about the whole thing, "I'm sorry I've been so distant about the whole thing... It's just been awkward." He doesn't add that this is because he's had a crush on her since last spring and she went to his house that night and how they haven't gone 24 hours without talking since she showed up after Hope's birthday, not that that's significant. Or that he's keeping track.

Beck shrugs, "Yeah, it has been. You've been better than Robbie and Rex, if that's any consolation."

"It's really not."

* * *

Rehearsals for the play are miraculously not the most awkward thing he's ever done. Sikowitz keeps them busy, constantly making Jade and Tori re-do their lines and scenes, leaving him and Beck to hang out backstage.

After the fifth and second-to-last rehearsal, Beck texts him to invite him over, saying he found his old N64 while cleaning out the garage. After a text from Jade, using the word fuck every other word and informing him she has to cancel coffee to go to Nozu with Tori, he agrees.

He can't really remember the last time he and Beck hung out one on one. He's been inviting Robbie to come along every time Beck's tried to set something up recently and before that, there was Jade. Sitting on the same orange couch, now moved out to the RV, and playing Smash Brothers makes him feel vaguely like being back in middle school.

He pauses the game as his phone buzzes with yet another expletive-filled text from Jade. He replies and looks up to find Beck staring at him, "Who do you keep texting?"

"...No one."

"Is it a girl?"

"...What?"

"You have that look on your face, man."

"It's no one, it's my ... grandma."

"She knows how to text?"

"Uh, yeah. You know, sometimes she thinks phones are the new robot overlords sometimes she... can text."

He has a feeling Beck isn't buying it, but he turns back to the game. As they keep playing, Andre can feel himself being pulled between them and the wonk starting to come over him, heart beating too fast, stumbling over his thoughts, trying to stop himself from bursting out that he likes Jade, like like likes her, and really wants to kiss her again or just like smell her hair and he's sorry, so sorry that he's the worst friend ever, and, and, and... If he's honest with himself, part of the reason he flipped out last spring was that Jade was Beck's and yeah, she's not technically anymore and Jade would probably flip that he's even like thinking of her as if she was someone's property or whatever, but she still sort-of is and oh god.

He's super thankful when his phone buzzes again, "I have to go."

"What's up?"

"It's my grandma," he skims the text, apparently Vega is the most fucking annoying person ever and she keeps slurping her fucking soup, "She, uh, thinks a tree is robbing our house."

"Want me to come help?"

"No, no, you know how she's scared of... everyone. Thanks for having me over."

"Yeah, we should do this again."

"Yeah, sure, we should do that... night."

* * *

He avoids Jade for the next few days and she finally corners him after the performance.

"What's up with you? Why aren't you responding to anything?"

He's been dreading this, but knows it's what he has to do. Yeah, she's really pretty and passionate and talented and just, yeah, but he was friends with Beck first, "I've been thinking... I don't think I can hang out with you alone anymore."

"Why not?"

"It's just..." he trails off, "I feel bad. Like we're hanging out behind Beck's back."

"So?"

"I dunno, he's just my friend and-"

She looks up from her phone, brows knitted together, "It's not like we're doing anything. What's your problem?"

"I..."

She rolls her eyes, "Whatever. Have fun. I hope you choke on your disgusting lattes."

He watches her stalk off and can't believe that he feels even worse.


End file.
